


Weight of the World

by brookemopolitan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers are gonna Avenge, Darcy refuses to let him beat himself up, Established Relationship, F/M, I haven't written in ages, Post Captain America: Civil War, Prompt Fic, Steve has many feelings, please be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 19:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7373842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brookemopolitan/pseuds/brookemopolitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for the prompt "After a while, you learn not to look as you walk through the ruins", taken from unblockingwritersblock.tumblr.com</p>
<p>Post Civil War, Steve is avenging with the team again. That doesn't mean he doesn't feel guilty about the messes the team makes. Enter Darcy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weight of the World

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to be honest- I haven't written in a really long time, but y'all are so kind in this fandom that when the plot bunny bit me, I couldn't help but put this together for you. Delightfully unbetaed, and all mistakes are my own.
> 
>  
> 
> Please be kind.

The world was always going to need avenging. And it didn’t need a toothless tiger that would rather discuss a disaster to death than actually do something to stop it. The world needed action. The world needs the Avengers.

The Sokovia Accords crumbled. A series of massacres by a power hungry Inhuman in South America saw to that. 

Steve came back to her, the way that she knew he would. Sharon Carter was a dear friend, willing to help deceive the public to keep Darcy safe, lest she be caught in the cross hairs of the civil war between the Avengers.

He was safe, but broken. Putting Bucky to sleep had hung a weight around Steve’s neck, and Darcy worried that adding that to the weight of the world that he insisted on carrying on his shoulders would be enough to force him to his knees.

The world needed avenging. It needed to be kept safe from the monsters that parents told their children about. But avenging was not clean work. It left disaster in its wake. 

That disaster was yet another weight on Steve’s shoulders, and Darcy couldn’t stand it. 

She used to find herself overwhelmed in the wake of destruction that was left when the world was saved. Puente Antiguo, New York, London… she’d stood frozen and stared in horror filled awe as she saw the cost that came with saving the world. Cities destroyed. Monuments shattered. 

Now, she’d learned not to look as she walked through the ruins. Cities could be rebuilt. Monuments were erected again. 

But Steve Rogers? His body might rapidly heal, but he wore the ruins like wounds on his soul. 

So Darcy ignored the broken city as she walked through the wreckage. She only had one goal in mind. 

She finds him inside a long abandoned restaurant. Only the bones of the building still stood. She’s relieved to see that the Iron Legion had managed to evacuate civilians- there were no corpses littering her path, only shattered glass and broken chunks of concrete that shifted underneath the converse sneakers on her feet as she walked.

Even seated, his head bowed, he was still such an enormous presence. She’d recognise the slope of his shoulders anywhere. She suppressed a sigh and silently reached under his chin to undo the strap of his helmet. Raking her nails through his sweaty hair, she tilted his head to face her. “You did what you had to do.” 

“It wasn’t enough,” he answered her, his blue eyes piercing her soul, the skin around one blackened and swollen. 

She rested her forehead against his. “The city was evacuated, and Coulson’s team have the hostile under control. What else could you have done?” 

“We razed the town to the ground! These people have nothing, and it’s my fault!” Steve was on his feet now, turning his back on Darcy.

“These people would have a lot less without you! Steve, you saved the lives of thousands of people today! People who would have died, Steve. That’s not nothing.” She walked up behind him, her arms slipping around his waist, head resting in the ditch between his shoulder blades. “Don’t do this to yourself. You’re not the bad guy here.” 

“Well then, who am I?” He asked. “Because I sure don’t feel like a hero.” 

Darcy tightened her arms slightly, waiting to hear a tell tale hiss that came with a broken rib. It didn’t come, so she wrapped herself around him as tightly as she dared. “I think you’re a man who is doing what he can to leave the world a better place than he found it,” she answered, determined to be honest. “You’re not a god, Steve. You can’t control everything.” She paused to press a kiss to his spine. “And I’m glad, really. I already have enough self-esteem issues because you’re so much prettier than I am. I couldn’t handle it if you were an actual deity on top of being literal perfection. Leave that shit to Thor.” 

That got a chuckle out of him. He turned around to face her, arms around her shoulders as he pulled her into his embrace. “You’re ridiculous,” he told her. 

“Yeah, and for some reason I still haven’t figured out, you love me for it,” She sassed him. A smile crept over her face when she felt a chuckle vibrate through his chest. 

“I do,” he answered, feathering a kiss on her brow. “I do love you.” 

“You done being Mr. Grumpy Pants?” she asked.

“For now,” he conceded. 

“Good,” she replied. “Because you’re way too clean cut to be an emo kid.” 

“Darcy, you know I still don’t really understand what makes something emo,” he reminded her. Their initial friendship had started because Darcy was the only person in the Avengers Tower to not make him feel like a complete idiot when he missed a cultural reference, and he still wouldn’t admit that he’d played the fool for months because he was too shy to ask the indomitable bombshell that was Darcy Lewis out on a date. 

“You’re full of shit,” Darcy shot back. She’d figured out his game almost immediately, and it was her that had made the first move and kissed him shortly after he’d returned from the Barton farm. She slipped out of his embrace to grab his hands. “You need to go debrief with Son of Coul,” she told him. “And then shower,” she added, wrinkling her nose at the smell of battle that was wafting off Steve. “They’re shipping us out to Italy from here, and I want spaghetti as soon as we land.” 

With his hand tucked in hers, and her chatter echoing in the still air, Steve Rogers was able to walk back to the helicarrier that had been flown in as transport, the feeling of failure that had flooded him as he surveyed the broken town a fading memory. Instead, he was filled with something that felt quite different… he thought it might be hope.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
